Sonic CD is out now on the Xbox Live Arcade for $5. We'll describe how it …

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Sonic CD was originally released on the ill-fated Sega CD platform, and it proved to be one of the few truly good games for that system. That's right, it was a game, not an experiment in what could be done with video. Sonic CD introduced Amy Rose and Metal Sonic, and it's worth noting that this happened before gamers began to groan at the idea of characters that aren't Sonic. The game was also released on the PC back in 1996; later, it could be found on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube in the Sonic Gems collection. It was always a game that people enjoyed, but it was never all that easy to find. Until now.

Sonic CD has been released on the Xbox Live Arcade, with a PlayStation Network version coming on December 20. The game can also be found on iOS devices tomorrow, and on the Android store starting today. We're going to stick to the Xbox 360 version, because we like buttons and the PlayStation 3 version is a week away. So how well does the game hold up?

Sonic CD added a few interesting changes to the Sonic formula, not the least of which is the ability to travel through time. At different parts of the stages you can choose to move to the past, or ahead to the future, and this changes both the aesthetics of a level and the enemies you face. It's a neat touch, and it certainly gives you reason to explore and play levels multiple times, which has always been one of the strengths of the Sonic franchise. The faux-3D special levels where you hunt UFOs don't hold up nearly as well, but what can you do? The core gameplay is just as good as you remember, and the ability to layer on a choice of three filters to make high definition versions of aging character models helps sell the game to modern eyes. It's still retro-looking no matter which option you choose, but in my opinion the "smooth" filter makes things more tolerable.

Sonic CD

You can also choose the far superior, and slightly crazy, Japanese soundtrack to listen to, an option that was sorely lacking from the original and later releases in the United States. The American soundtrack isn't nearly as bad as I remembered it—probably because having an opinion on the Sonic CD soundtrack back in the day was used as hipster cred as often it was used to explain an actual opinion—but being able to change back and forth is wonderful. You'll also be able to play through as Tails if you finish the game, which is a nice touch.

The best part is the game's $5 price tag on both the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network versions. If you're even partially interested in the game, it's worth picking it up for such a low price, especially since it's widely considered to be one of the best games in the Sonic series. You can finally learn the difference between the two soundtracks, enjoy a game that has never been given a wide release on a popular platform, and of course you can sit there and quietly hate Tails, even before you unlock him. Enjoy!

Before we get to the "not on my system" posts, this port is coming to the PC, but there is no release date as of yet.

I remember this game quite fondly. We had the Windows 95 (PC) version of it and I always remember getting frustrated at having to set the Windows graphics mode to 256 colours just to be able to play it (for some reason it insisted on forcing that... I still don't understand why it couldn't just be played with the Windows graphics mode set at 32-bit full-colour...). It was a shame when I discovered the game was unplayable on newer versions of Windows (I think XP was the last version it worked on, and only in Win98 compatibility mode...), as I really enjoyed it. A new PC port that doesn't require reconfiguring the Windows graphics mode and that works on newer Windows will certainly be welcomed by me.

Honestly, it fits into an odd spot in the series development. You can see that the initial dev started before Sonic 2 but it was released afterwards. They kinda shoehorn in the spindash from Sonic 2 without adding a new sprite for Sonic, so it looks really awkward, and the game engine and level design are MUCH closer to Sonic 1 than the refinements that Sonic 2 brought.

That's not to say it's horrible, it's just not as polished as Sonic 2 or 3.

Well, kinda. I think it's a bit much to say that Metal Sonic is a separate character from Silver Sonic at the end of Sonic 2.

How's the audio? For all its flaws, the Sega CD was from an era where people still thought of "CD" as synonymous with "music"; it used Redbook audio and it sounded GOOD. I assume we're working with some kind of compressed music format here, and I'm betting it's not FLAC.

zen bullet wrote:

I never played the original, but $5 is hard to beat. Design-wise does it rank more in the Sonic 1-3 camp, or the horrors that were to come after?

It's widely regarded as the best of the series, though I'm more of a Sonic 3 guy. (Have never finished Sonic CD; I think it's because I obsess too much over trying to get the good ending.)

karashata wrote:

I remember this game quite fondly. We had the Windows 95 (PC) version of it and I always remember getting frustrated at having to set the Windows graphics mode to 256 colours just to be able to play it (for some reason it insisted on forcing that... I still don't understand why it couldn't just be played with the Windows graphics mode set at 32-bit full-colour...).

Yeah, even though the opening and ending videos were more than 256 colors! Just absurd.

I liked that it had a suicide button, though, given the game's tendency to trap you at the end of a level and not let you backtrack. (Course, the better fix would have been just not to do that.)

(The original, buggy-ass trap-you-in-the-wall version of Sonic 3 really could have used a suicide button. Instead of just throwing a lame reference to "Robotnik's traps" in the manual.)

I still have an original Sega CD copy of Sonic CD and my CDX sitting in a box in my spare room. I need to pull it out one of these days and bask in some early 90s gaming goodness again. If I find my adapters for the 32X I might even fire up some Virtua Racing on that bad boy!

Yes, I sold my old, old original 1st gen Genesis back in '96 to get a CDX, 32X and a Nomad when they were discontinued at Toys R Us. I loved that Nomad but couldn't get past the horrible battery life (less than 3 hours on 6 AAs).

Yes, I sold my old, old original 1st gen Genesis back in '96 to get a CDX, 32X and a Nomad when they were discontinued at Toys R Us.

Heh, good call -- that's the time to buy, when they're on their way out. I just got a PSP and am very happy with it -- and with its bevy of $10 games. (And as far as portable things that play Genesis games, it's a lot more appealing than a Nomad...)

I bought a Genesis 2/Sega CD 2 combo on eBay a few years ago, and it recently occurred to me that there's really no good reason for me to keep my original Genesis in storage. I've got a cousin who's recently gotten into retro gaming on his dad's NES; I'm going to give him my Model 1 Genesis for Christmas.

I saw this is a "coming soon" thing earlier this week on Live and was immediately interested. It always was, and has remained my favorite of the Sonic games up through Sonic 3 (I never really bothered beyond that).

I still have the original SegaCD release (along with a functional SegaCD), but for $5 on my 360, this is a no-brainer. Bring it on!

I too have the original SegaCD release and I always thought the American soundtrack was just fine. In fact, I liked it enough I listened to it outside the game sometimes. Admittedly this is when I was younger but I went and listened to a few tracks again and they still sound fine to me. I'll have to check out the Japanese soundtrack sometime.

I'd imagine it'd has to do with the fact that, assuming it's a full 650MB CD, it's just too big a download for Wii owners. On a separate but related note, I recall reading on here years ago that Nintendo said that Wii owners were gonna get "something better" than HDD storage. Well, I've got an SD card full of Rock Band 2/3 downloads... and I'm still waiting for "something better." -_-

Ah well. At least we haven't given up our right to sue Nintendo if they decide to bait & switch us like Sony did with PS3 users and OtherOS. I might have bought a PS3 if they hadn't done that.

I'd imagine it'd has to do with the fact that, assuming it's a full 650MB CD, it's just too big a download for Wii owners. On a separate but related note, I recall reading on here years ago that Nintendo said that Wii owners were gonna get "something better" than HDD storage. Well, I've got an SD card full of Rock Band 2/3 downloads... and I'm still waiting for "something better." -_-

Ah well. At least we haven't given up our right to sue Nintendo if they decide to bait & switch us like Sony did with PS3 users and OtherOS. I might have bought a PS3 if they hadn't done that.

Nah, there're other CD games on the Virtual Console already. I think it's more that there's no Sega CD emulation on VC (yet? maybe never..) because Dracula X: Rondo of Blood would most certainly be a full disc game if you count all the space for the CD audio-- just like Sonic CD.

Talk about bringing back memories. I still remember when SEGA was touting "Blast Processing". I also remember when Nintendo forced Acclaim to censor Mortal Kombat with white spit rather than blood. Those were the days.

You know, if you Wii (and non-PS3/360) owners really want it, it's not like you can't just go pick up a used copy of Sonic Gems Collection for GameCube on Amazon. It's not that expensive, and it comes with a bunch of other titles, too. http://amzn.com/B0009SQFGQ

This version is actually rebuilt from the ground up. There are a lot of nice touches here as a result like true widescreen support and the ability to choose between the original game's rather gimpy spin dash or Sonic 2's instead (playable Tails was already mentioned).

Honestly, I find Sonic CD to be a bit overrated in comparison to its peers but it's still solid, and you really can't beat $5.

Android version is $1.99 currently in the Market. Not sure if that's an introductory sale or the final price, so I pulled the trigger right away just in case. Hope it supports USB game pads or bluetooth Wii controllers - or if it doesn't, I hope the touch controls don't suck. Haven't tried it out yet since it requires over 250 MB of game data to download, and I'm on my very slim work pipes right now.

Just downloaded the 250mb package. It feels very much like the old game, at least as far as I can remember. There's the Japan soundtrack as promised and touch controls aren't obtrusive! Graphics-wise, it's a slightly choppy though. Don't know if it's because of the software, or because of dated graphics. Playing it on the galaxy nexus, so it shouldn't be a hardware thing. Or maybe it's because it's been so long since I've played such an old game!

I liked both soundtracks but the JP version using tortured groans for the backing vocals distracted from the main melody. Of course the US soundtrack used pornographic moans for theirs so it wasn't much better.

As for the game itself I'd put Sonic CD a hair above Sonic 2 (and both above Sonic 1) mainly because Sonic CD has more content. Sonic 3 however is far and above both games. Maybe if they had made a Sonic CD 2...

Oh here is a site that goes more into depth on the soundtrack, even listing the songs that were sampled.

As for those who like Sonic Boom, I did too but the lyrics were way too cheesy. Fortunately there is an instrumental version of the song which just has Spencer Nilsen and Dave Young ripping away at their instruments . A lot of Spencer Nilsen and Dave Young's work was excellent...just poisoned IMHO by cheesy lyrics and vocals over their guitar and keyboard work...I feel that the Japanese Sonic CD music was poisoned by silly lyrics and vocals too (and the trend continued with all those silly vocal songs in the Dreamcast+ eras). IIRC Sega USA demanded lyrics to "show off" the CD hardware or something... In any case you can hear some of Nilsen and Young's best on Ecco: Songs of Time which is pure instrumental. I bought a copy years ago...it was well worth it.

I remember this game quite fondly. We had the Windows 95 (PC) version of it and I always remember getting frustrated at having to set the Windows graphics mode to 256 colours just to be able to play it (for some reason it insisted on forcing that... I still don't understand why it couldn't just be played with the Windows graphics mode set at 32-bit full-colour...).

I've never played Sonic CD, but one guess is that maybe it relied on palette shifting for some animation?

Sonic CD never quite sat right with me as a huge fan of the 16-bit era Sonics.

The movement was weird, the time travel mechanic odd. There was absolutely no reason to go into the future versions of each zone, all you ever needed to do was go to the past, destroy the machines and that was it - good future.

Level design was weird, it has all these odd shaped bits and bobs, and too many gimmicks. Wacky Workbench is a nightmare to navigate through. I never really got why Sonic needed two types of dash - up and hold which was slow, and down and hold which was a bit faster.

The 3D special stages made no sense whatsoever. The Stardust Speedway race with Mecha Sonic was completely messed up.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more Sonic CD is quite easily the worst of the Sonics of that era. It just didn't play right. And the soundtrack was equally weird - given the sudden freedom of Redbook audio, the composers seemed to be lost (with both the US and JP versions, which I have), whereas they were usually really tight with the limitations of the Mega Drive's internal DSP chip for the cartridge-based games.

For those wondering where this game fits in to the rest of the series, think of it as Sonic 2 from a parallel universe where they didn't put as much effort in to it. It's still a good game but is kind of overrated in some circles, probably due to people thinking it didn't get the attention it deserved compared to the real Sonic 2. Also before playing I recommend you mentally prepare yourself to the fact that it looks and feels more like Sonic 1 than 2. It feels... awkward, for some reason.

Also I'm going to end the inevitable soundtrack debate right now by stating this: both versions sucked equally. They both feel like cheap fan-made drivel that doesn't even come close to the greatness of the soundtracks of the main Sonic games.

I hated Sonic CD. The whole past/future thing just made what could have otherwise been a Sonic classic into a confusing mess. Actually, I enjoyed the game much more the first time I played it to the end without reading the manual or having the slightest clue what the point of the past/future thing was.

Now time travel in Sonic Generations, that's a different story. Sonic 2 and Sonic Generations FTW!

I'd imagine it'd has to do with the fact that, assuming it's a full 650MB CD, it's just too big a download for Wii owners. On a separate but related note, I recall reading on here years ago that Nintendo said that Wii owners were gonna get "something better" than HDD storage. Well, I've got an SD card full of Rock Band 2/3 downloads... and I'm still waiting for "something better." -_-

Ah well. At least we haven't given up our right to sue Nintendo if they decide to bait & switch us like Sony did with PS3 users and OtherOS. I might have bought a PS3 if they hadn't done that.

Nah, there're other CD games on the Virtual Console already. I think it's more that there's no Sega CD emulation on VC (yet? maybe never..) because Dracula X: Rondo of Blood would most certainly be a full disc game if you count all the space for the CD audio-- just like Sonic CD.

This isn't emulation, it's a ground-up redo of the entire game engine using a fan-made engine, so it would be WiiWare instead of Virtual Console. You can even choose whether to use the original Sonic CD physics or switch to the Sonic 2 version, and the same option is present for the spindash. Sega really went above and beyond to make this the definitive version of the game. There are some more details here from someone who knows more about Sonic that just about anyone else (and more than is probably healthy, for that matter).

And I suspect that size is indeed the reason it's not on Wii. Sonic games have sold best on Nintendo platforms by a pretty wide margin ever since Sega went third party, so getting this on Wii would make a lot of sense. However, the size restriction is an absurdly restrictive forty-something MB and Nintendo's downloadable stores haven't been a hotbed of activity, so I can easily understand why Sega would have passed on them.